The Treasury has raised $1 billion in housing, premises or garage rentals thanks to the hundreds of thousands of notifications it sends each year, since 2016, to owners with rental income from their properties. This door-to-door work of the Tax Agency has made it possible to increase the collection and improve the quality of tax data recorded on the rental market after having prepared more than a million declarations “which include declarations real estate”.
The “preventive” effort to have rents declared to the IRPF (Personal Income Tax) began eight years ago, just as the market began to grow more and more and prices to climb. – around 30% nationwide in this same period, as explained here. . Today, access to housing has become the main economic problem in Spain, especially for the youngest and in the large capitals and main tourist destinations, where most jobs and the supply of apartments are concentrated or tourist houses.
Initially, the tax administration used “big data” tools to find owners on Internet portals (from Idealista to Airbnb or Booking). Using the information contained in the advertisements from these “open sources” – in tax jargon – Treasury officials sent notices to owners so that they could pay the corresponding taxes.
Secondly, “the informative declaration of the housing platforms which negotiate rentals comes into force. [de nuevo, portales inmobiliarios, y también de ofertas turísticas]”, as the Tax Agency explains to elDiario.es. When this information “is considered sufficiently mature [fiable]”, the data is automatically integrated into the corresponding box of the owners’ draft personal income tax returns, without the need to issue notifications.
In recent years, most notices from the Tax Agency are sent with information about tenant deposits that the owners themselves deposit in the autonomous communities. In summary, during the first six years, thanks to the notifications, the Treasury collection increased by 878 million euros, after applying the planned reductions for rental income. In 2022 and 2023, the tax authorities collected an additional 147 million, exceeding a billion in total.
This information system or campaign for owners is “a superficial measure” prior to inspections and controls, which the Treasury carries out when it finds that taxes are not paid and for which there is no specific data concerning rents. . accommodation.
Currently, just over three million families have income from the rental of real estate properties in Spain, with data up to 2022, the latest consolidated. This figure is slightly lower than the total number of self-employed workers who are working. The comparison serves to measure the political and economic dimension of “small” (and not so small) rentiers. From its activity, the Treasury collects around 2 billion each year, according to 2022 statistics and the 2023 estimate.
This data recorded by the Tax Agency is crucial for designing and evaluating policies to alleviate the suffocation of many families. Concretely, those whose income (salaries, pensions, etc.) have increased well below the increase in rental prices, and the profitability obtained by owners.
Rental income doubles in a decade
Treasury campaigns, which knock on landlords’ doors every year, have revealed a rental market that has grown every year since 2000, with the sole exception of 2020. The total gross income obtained by homeowners in our country is increased from 2.5 billion at the start of the millennium to nearly 22.3 billion in 2023, according to data from the Tax Agency.
Growth intensified after the worst years of the great financial crisis. Since 2014, owners’ income has doubled, from 10 billion to 22.3 billion. During this same period, wage income increased by 53% and retirement income by 46.7%, or about half.
Just as the growth in rental income includes the increase in the number of homeowners – from two million to three million over the last decade – the increase in wages takes into account job creation.
X-ray of annuitants
The same tax statistics provide an overview of declarants with income from the rental of housing, premises or parking spaces. It shows, for example, that one family in five with an income of between 30,000 and 60,000 euros gross per year has an average income of nearly 800 euros per month from the rental of real estate. In fact, there are 923,512 pensioners in this section.
These figures skyrocket as incomes increase, and they do not include the real estate investment vehicles (companies, funds, Socimis…) of the richest or largest holders, which do not pay income tax. According to various experts, the latter represent 8% of the rental market.
In the income bracket between 60,000 euros and 150,000 euros, three out of ten people surveyed (315,186 in total) have income from renting their home. An income which amounts to almost 1,300 euros per month (still on average). This figure clearly shows that they rented larger accommodations or more than one property.
The numbers increase in the following income brackets. Between 150,000 and 601,000 euros, 40% of these rich families declare rental income (60,681 declarers with 2,000 euros gross per month). In the ultra-rich bracket, with income above 601,000 euros, there are almost half (7,109 tax filers with 2,600 euros). But we must take into account the fact that among these great fortunes, more of them invest in housing to obtain profitability through companies (which pay corporate tax), Socimis or collective funds. , and that, therefore, they are not included in this personal income. tax statistics.
Below 30,000 euros gross per year, annuitants also appear in the statistics of income tax filers. Half a million, 12% of the total, between 21,000 and 30,000 euros. Another half a million, between 12,000 euros and 21,000 euros (10% of the total). Both, with incomes of around 600 euros per month. The percentages of one in ten are maintained even among the poorest.
